this morning on "world news now." a monster hurricane maria battering the virgin islands and preparing to strike puerto rico head on in just a number of hours. authorities not taking any chances, warning residents to evacuate. the latest reports from san juan and the storm track. also happening now, a frantic rescue effort in mexico city following a powerful and deadly earthquake. panic and chaos, as dozens of buildings swayed or collapsed. and thousands are sleeping in the streets overnight. we have the latest from the region. and new this half hour, a college football program rocked by an alleged hazing scandal. >> some are accused of kidnapping a fellow teammate. and they've now turned

facing federal charges. and forget about the celebrities that make you feel all cozy inside. this morning we have the list of the most dangerous celebrities on the internet right now. how their online presence may threaten security of your identity. a skinny dragnet on this wednesday, september 20th. their from abc news, this is "world news now". good morning, everyone, we given with two stories breaking right now. the deadly earthquake and hurricane maria roaring in the caribbean. >> mexico has declared a state of disaster. rescuers desperately try to reach those trapped in buildings. meanwhile, maria is lashing the virgin islands and closing in on puerto rico. >> this is the image we see right now. the storm expected to reach the u.s. territory this morning, the virgin islands and then puerto rico. the governor there already declaring it the biggest and most catastrophic hurricane to hit puertri

where some 3.5 million people live. abc's rob marciano starts us off with more on maria. >> reporter: and conditions here will continue to go down with the worst of the storm coming in between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with landfall across the southern tip of the island and cutting right across the central part of puerto rico, with san juan being right in the path or even worse, right on the right side of this storm. they expect widespread power outages and destruction. most of the residents on the southeast corridor have been forced to evacuate. they do expect a fair amount of destruction and devastation. storm surge will be pretty big as well, winds could be blowing over 160 miles per hour. the worst storm that this island has seen since 1928. preparations rush with

for those in vulnerable areas. we're seeing more views of hurricane maria from above. >> take a look at this. this video comes from the international space station as it passed over the storm system. accuweather's paul williams updates us on the path. >> good morning, diane, kendis. maria going through and tracking through sunday, expected to stay a dangerous category five as she rips across puerto rico, then downgraded to a category four. thanks to the mountainous region taking away some of her strength. in the midst of that, significant winds into puerto rico, dominican republic and flooding rainfall. and as far as tropical storm jose is concerned, he won't die out. that's why he's going to continue to pose a problem for the east coast. diane, kendis? >> many parts of the east coast still under a drtropical storm watch as a result of jose. moving on to the

rescue effort in and around mex kp ico city. >> officials say 40% of the city is without power. the death toll is now about 225 people. but that is very much expected to climb. abc's matt gutman has more. >> reporter: the scramble to find victims entombed by that quake. so powerful it pulverized buildings. one woman covered in dust carried through the crowd on a stretcher. rescuers rushing into this badly-damaged building to get this woman to safety. more than two dozen buildings collapsed, including schools. the massive 7.1 quake striking just after 1:00 p.m., less than 100 miles from the

population nearly 9 million. overhead lights swinging like pendulums. parts of the ceiling crashing down. workers freeing -- fleeing. this man staying against the wall. tourists ducking under a table. thousands rushing to the say the -- safety of the street. it was horrible this man says. dust clogging the air so thick you could barely see anything. residents seen trying to secure a billboard that landed on top of one of those collapsed buildings. >> we just lost a building in mexico city. >> reporter: windows crashing to the sidewalk. streets littered with crumbling facades. this car destroyed. >> 250 miles away in mexico city -- >> reporter: it was 30 years a

of mexico killing thousands in 1985. as they begin to assess the toll, more than 100 dead. cracked pavement one of the many scars. one of the problems is that mexico city was built on a lake bed and it undulates, exacerbating the damage. >> one of the buildings that collapsed in mexico city was a gram ar scho grammar school. >> dozens of others are still reported missing. now fusion television reporter, rafa fernandez was there when it struck. we spoke with him moments ago about his experience. >> translator: >> caller: i was actually on the 12th floor of a high rise.

tabld. i could literally feel the building shake and the ground beneath me shake. i thought at any moment this is going to go down. everyone started walking and running down the stairs trying to get back into the street. there were just thousands of people in the street. several gas leaks, which made it a bit dangerous. people were shouting at other people not to smoke, not to light any cigarettes. because of all these gas leaks that we had around the city. >> definitely a situation that is ongoing there. rafa fernandez earlier. and millions of mexicans are spending the night in the dark because the quake knocked out power. mexico city's airport has reopened it was closed to air traffic several hours after the quake. president trump is tweeting that many leaders he met with agreed with his address. he used the address to totally threaten to destroy

if it attacked the u.s. or its allies. north korean ambassador boycotted the speech, which included the president's new nickname for kim jong un. >> rocketman is on a suicide mission for himself. and for his regime. the united states is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. >> the president also took aim at the iran nuclear deal, calling it one of the worst, most one-sided transactions the u.s. has ever entered into. he denounced radical islamic terrorism and said some parts of the world are going to hell. now to baseball history, and it happened when alex gordon of the kansas city royals hit a home run against the blue jays. >> homer was number 5,694 of the season. that breaks the previous mark set in 2000. there are still 12 days left in the regular season by the way.

be over 6100 for the year. >> all right. >> not too bad. >> yeah, not bad. >> and there is nothing more exciting than finding out that someone just bought you a present! >> yeah. >> or maybe getting an early e-mail saying that someone did and it's on the way. >> it's exciting. unless it's for a gift for your unborn child. >> non-existent. >> unborn child. as far as you now. so amazon sent a whole bunch of random customers this e-mail notice, telling them a gift from their baby registry had been purchased. >> i got one of these. i was so confused. but here's the thing. so did lots of other people, and there was no baby registry. in many cases not even a baby for that matter. amazon is now blaming the glitch, blaming the glitch for the e-mails and apologizing for any confusion they may have caused.

households when that came through? >> i didn't even think of that. what is that! >> what is this? >> how terrified were you when you got the e-mail? >> i was horrified. i got on instagram and apologized all kevin hart style. >> so just for the record, we're not getting any gifts? >> no. >> there's no baby? >> no. no. no. we don't have a baby coming that we know of. coming up after the break. we have some new developments to tell you about. five college football players facing criminal charges in an alleged hazing incident. and barbara corcoran is making some moves. the real estate mogul stunned us with her dancing on "dancing with the stars." now she's making her mark on her partner as well. we'll, pla we'll explain how in the skip ey

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right now, violent hazing allegations involving a college football team that landed a freshman player in the hospital. >> five other football players are facing felony charges and two have turned themselves in.

here's alex perez. >> reporter: at the respected wheaton college football team, hazing allegations against five football players. >> they are being charged with felony counts, aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint. >> reporter: the players, now seniors, accused of kidnapping a freshman teammate from his dorm at the conservative christian school. the victim says he was bound with duct tape, bunched and they were going to sexually assault him with an object. before dumping him on a field in a cold night of march 2016. >> this is not just immature silly behavior, this is criminal behavior. >> reporter: the victim's attorney says he suffered torn muscles in both shoulders requiring surgery. prosecutors charging the athletes who until now still appeared on this year's team

and school officials are troubled by the allegations, cooperating with authorities and launched their own investigation. the student who says he was assaulted now attends a different college. alex perez, abc news, wheaton, illinois. >> one of the suspects, noah spielman is the son of chris spielman. former ohio state football player. and his uncle is also the general manager for the minnesota vikings. quite a football pedigree there. >> yes. coming up, we're going to see what melissa mccarthy's been cooking with a new character. and hear how searching online for celebrities can lead to major headaches for you. "the skinny" is next. es for you. "the skinny" is next. switch to flonase allergy relief. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6. most allergy pills only block one

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♪ skinny ♪ so skinny all right, we're having a pretty dangerous skinny this time around. >> dangerous? >> we are starting things off with the most dangerous online celebrities. >> we're going to get right to it and tell you who that is and then we'll explain why. the celebrity most likely to do harm to you online is --

♪ complicated >> avril levine. >> the anti-virus company mcafee put together a list of celebrities that have the highest percentage of search engine results with malignant links that could allow hackers access to your computer. >> so rounding out the top five is bruno mashs mars, carly ray jepson, zayn malik. >> bruno mars? >> he's a nice guy. >> beyonce was number ten. >> the bea hive. you know, you're relatively safe in searching. >> compared to avril levine. >> and celine dion. >> to the uk, craig davis. >> he is on "fill me in." and "seven days."

you might know him from those. his break-through album "born to do it." in the year 2000, still generating plenty of interest, apparently. >> hopefully not too much interest with those malignant links. >> ma lig nanlignant links, i l. 2000 is coming back. ♪ so next, to barbara corcoran proving that she's not just a shark but a cougar, too. we don't judge. we let her words speak for themselves. >> she appeared at times a little frisky. well, here's a reminder of how she feels about her professional partner. >> keogh is my type. he's ripped. he's young. if i were to marry him, i'd

probably get 30 years of marriage out of situation. fine specimen of a man. i'm going to be the envy of all my girlfriends, no doubt about it. >> she's not holding back. but back stage she unveiled even more. >> yeah, and i quote here. i look at him and blush he looks at me a certain way. i have wild dreams every night. i feel like i'm 16 and about to know what? >> i'm about to, you know what. >> i'm about to you know what. >> you got so flustered you couldn't even read the quote. >> she's down with the swirl. >> i kind of love barbara corcoran. i have to say. but often when you watch "dancing with the stars" there's this part where the partner has to learn the samba or tango, some sexy dance and the pro has to teach that, how to get sexy and get into it. i don't think he's going to have that problem with barbara corcoran. i think she's going to get just close enough, maybe too close, even. >> she's

>> do it. next to melissa mccarthy, fresh off her primetime emmy win for her portrayal of former press secretary sean spicer. she's now got a new movie coming up that looks like it could be another snl character. >> it's called "cookoff." and it's a docu-spoof. >> we're really here, aren't we? tell us what you're making. >> i'm making a sweet potato, which is technically a vegetable. once everything's cooked, i'm not that clean, but it really cooks up nice. >> so "yummy", the movie opens november 17. here's britney spears with her tumbling routine. >> she posted this with a caption, fun day, the olympics are coming to l.a. in 2028. >> this next routine seems more our sp

that's kate hudson showing us how she sculpts with rose. coming up, the story behind "see you again." >> what do you mean, like you see me again? do you mean, like you see me again? i know. and thank you so much for that. i think we should get a medicare supplement insurance plan. right now? [ male announcer ] whether you're new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. it's up to you to pay the difference. so think about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay and could really save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now. with a medicare supplement plan, you'll be able to stay with your doctor. oh, you know, i love that guy. mm-hmm. [ male announcer ] these types of plans let you visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. and there are no networks. you do your push-ups today?

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♪ so i'll tell you ♪ when i see you again ♪ when i see you again >> that is charlie puth singing. that is one of the most successful musical collaborations of all time. "see you again." >> and, as abc learns, he saw the final piece of the film of franchise's puzzle. ♪ >> reporter: see you again, performed with wiz khalifa, honoring the late paul walk ir. the song broke records, for nearly a month and scoring three

he composed the melody during a meeting. he says it took only a matter of minutes. >> my friend had passed away in 2012. i'll never forget, the moment i found out he was no longer living, i texted his phone. i was like, see you soon. how about see you again. ♪ it's been a long day without you my friend ♪ ♪ and i'll tell you all about it when i see you again ♪ i think i had in a matter of 30 minutes about 100 people walk in the room, executives walk into the room, who is this kid? nobody's able to nail it and he did it in ten minutes. i'm supposed to be like oh, i had no idea. i my it was going to change my life. >> reporter: he looked the part of a pop star. but it's clear there is a vir e virtuoso behind

your mom, though, was completely influential. >> yeah. she taught me how to play piano when i was 4 years old. she always told me that i would be walking around, be like, mom, the wind's blowing in f sharp. great, my son's weird. but so apparently, i always had it but it became very apparent to me when i was like around 8 years old, i realized i could listen to a carpenter's record ♪ oh, say good-bye to love ♪ such beautiful melodies, but i could listen to it and play it on the piano. ♪ ♪ [cheers and applause] >> reporter: gloria rivera, in washington, d.c. >> can you imagine having that level of talent? to be in a meeting, we'd really like a song. give me four minutes, and here you go. >> really quickly, his eyebrows. they look like he might have

it's a scar. >> a scar from a dog bite. mystery solved. >> that's it for this half hour.

making news in america this morning, hurricane maria is lashing puerto rico and the virgin islands overnight. it could be the worst to hit puerto rico in a century. see the last-minute preparations and the american medical student missing after the hurricane made landfall on dominica. devastation in mexico. a powerful earthquake topples buildings. hundreds are dead and many more trapped in the rubble. new details from a witness in mexico city as rescuers search for survivors. president trump has threatened to destroy north korea and now the world is reacting. see how his u.n. speech is being received and what the president said overnight about other world leaders. massive sinkhole swallows part of a flori